THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 27 



Republic* Captain Lewis started from Washington to take 

 charge of the party on the 5th of July, 1 803. They crossed 

 the Continent, reaching the mouth of the Columbia River, 

 and with the loss of but one man, returned and arrived at 

 St. Louis on the 23d of September, 1806. 



" The idea of exploration originated with Jefferson. In 

 1792 he tried to interest the American Philosophical Society 

 in the plan. It was approved, and it was decided to place 

 the expedition in charge of Andre Michaux. Reasons of 

 State policy arising out of our relation with Michaux's 

 country, caused its abandonment. Lewis was Jefferson's 

 private secretary, and under him the expedition finally 

 started." 



The plants collected on the expedition were described by 

 Pursh in his " Flora Americae Septrionalis," published in 

 London, in 1814. One hundred and nineteen (119) plants 

 are referred to, many of which he described as wholly new. 



Nothing w^as known as to the final disposition of the 

 collections. It w^as lost to botanists. " It was understood 

 that Pursh took these plants to England, and that they were 

 left by him to Mr. A. B. Lambert, Vice-President of the 

 Linnsean Society, under whose roof and by whose aid 

 Pursh's great work was completed. Lambert's Herbarium 

 was finally distributed, and, in some way not known to the 

 writer, a number of Lewis's plants, forming Pursh's types, 

 and marked ' from Lambert's Herbarium ' became part of 

 the herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia." 



" Two years ago Professor C. S. Sargent suggested to the 

 writer the possibility of some of the material being yet in 



♦1898. Meehax— Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., p. 12. 



